Dope Piece (left), Mike’L (right)

Coming hot off the trippy tracers of one of the most memorable hip hop releases of 2014, Dope Piece has been working hard and keeping busy to maintain his steady outlet, and define his flourishing technique. Dope Piece has kept the vivid VCR vibes coming with a wave of videos for many memorable tracks off PIECESIGNS (2014) and has also been back in the lab. With Mike’L at the production helm once again, the pair carefully cooked up a quick follow-up dish: a mixtape titled DOPEACE, and it’s due out this fall.

In the last week alone, Dope Piece has dropped a double music video for the tracks “Come Up” and “Catchin’ Wreck” from 2014’s PIECESIGNS. This was all within a few days of sharing a two-minute teaser joint for the upcoming DOPEACE tape.

The new track is called “Stylin’15”, and it’s got all the signature ques you learned to love on last year’s tape, but with a realized and self-assured execution. The track confidently captures the PIECESIGNS hot spots, and trims them into a perfectly lean two-minute verbal onslaught.

Check out the new teaser track here:

Watch the new video for “Come Up / Catchin’ Wreck” here:

The flow on “Stylin’15” is impressive, the hooks are subtle, and the beat is the signature craft work of Mike’L’s unmatched ear for top-notch sampling. It is tasteful showmanship, confident brevity — a gridiron “back to basics” approach that makes the convoluted nature of most modern emcees pale in comparison.

“I think the biggest difference is going to be how much more musically sound it will be, we’ve been putting a lot more time into recording and production,” Mike’L says comparing DOPEACE to last years PIECESIGNS. “I think I’m just breaking down more musical boundaries I used to hold to myself. I try and keep things traditional and keep the craft, but I also like to expand all that with some new styles and ideas. Making this all unique is my biggest priority on this album.”

Wondering what the process around the Dope Piece and Mike’L collaborations look like?

“Lotta backwoods, Molson products, nag champa clouds, sometimes the homies and the girls chilln’ out,” explains Dope Piece. “We grind really hard on what we do, we meet up and just go at it until we go crash. In the middle of recording DOPEACE and writing at my old studio I got evicted, which definitely made us take a few steps back, but now we got shit set up in Rabbittown and we’re finishing everything up with a good pace.”

Dope Piece and Mike’L’s product has garnered a lot of attention and support that transcends St. John’s scenes and subgenres, and has formed a reach that hasn’t quite been achieved by many underground Newfoundland emcees and producers.

“Well I think that both our history in the local scene definitely helped with our perspective on music, and what to throw out there,” says Mike’L. “Also we’re real picky on our product, how we want to maintain what we’re about, and I think a lot of people really dig that.”

“Stylin’15” is just a taste, and after thedrop of DOPEACE this fall, the plans and projects don’t show any sign of slowing down.

“We’re hoping to have everything done up in about a month, gonna try and get a solid album to the people. We’re trying to collab more with other artists, in the music and graffiti scene. We’ got a solid team of people helping us with editing and filming and drawing, so we just want to do as much shit as we can,” says Dope Piece. “We’re gonna keep up the Peace/Piece tapes, there will also be a Mike’L beat tape around December, and our big plan would be to get a crew grounded for Fogtown Hooliganz which will be a project including more rappers and possibly producers for an album.”

Check out the 2014 Dope Piece PIECESIGNS Mixtape in it’s entirety: